book – Page 2 – Tech in the Trenches

I read one book. Now I’m trapped.

I finished a story. I got all three parts. Completed. Finished.

But it was merely a glimpse. An introduction. The tattered edge of a map waving invitingly in the breeze.

Beckoning me. Begging me. Calling me to it. Demanding I dig deeper.

Deeper I went. There is another book. A sequel. Well reviewed and available.

It fills the gaps in the first story. It was less a sequel as the rest of the story.

The completion of a tale only half told.

I was excited. And conflicted.

I had other worlds to visit. I tried to dive in. Dangling my toe into their literary waters.

I swam in them. Forcing myself into the crashing waves and chilly depths.

But each time I regretted leaving my first world. It has stuck with me. Demanding my attention. Begging to show me more.

Hiking its skirt up and showing some leg. Legs that went on forever. There were even more books. An entire universe to explore.

A huge world I was merely a tourist in. I had stumbled in unknowingly.

It has me and it won’t let me go. I need to know more. I must visit. I must move there.

I must return to the world I know only vaguely. Armed with more questions than answers, I tip toe closer to its Siren’s song.

I am taken. Shipwrecked. With no hope of escape. Unless I learn all I can. And to do that…

I must read.

Ambition

I am starting an ambitious plan this month. I am going to get the book that’s been in my head out and into a form for people to read and enjoy.

Technical Support is Customer Service

I’ve been working a series of customer service and technical support jobs for nearly a decade. I’ve come to realize they are the same. I am passionate about customer service and treating people right.

Technical Support has long been about supporting technology first and people second. I want to turn that idea on its ear. Technical Support is more about supporting the people using technology than the technology itself. Technology is merely a tool to accomplish a task.

Planning

I’ve planned and thought and read. Trying to give form to this idea inside my brain. And all of a sudden, it became November. And with November, comes NanoWriMo.

I am going to write my book this month. I am going to take the collection of thoughts and experienced inside my head and put them into words. Then turn those words into a book after the month ends.

It has begun and I have written the first 2,000 words towards explaining why I care so much about customer service in technical support and how other people can learn from my near decade of experience in support companies and government agencies big and small.

Metamorphosis

As the month started and I signed up for NanoWriMo I had no idea how I was going to write 50,000 words on customer service. I care about it a lot and I have some good ideas around making people better at it. But I had no idea how I would fill those virtual pages.

Until it hit me.

Becoming a Well-Rounded Technician

The idea was bigger than simple tech support or customer service. The idea I had in my head all along was about becoming a better technician and all the parts that go into the job.

So the book was born. Becoming a Well-Rounded Technician is my working title and terrible name but it’s what I’ve titled this adventure.

I’ve got 2,000 words down and another 48,000 to go to complete NanoWriMo successfully and by that time, have enough of my ideas fleshed out I can organize them and put them into a book.

I am excited. I am scared. This is going to be great fun and a huge challenge.

The longest thing I ever recall writing was a 20 page story in a creative writing class in 8th grade.

Wish me luck. The adventure has begun and I’ve leapt in with both feet. If you want to follow along, this is my NanoWriMo page and if you’re writing too, let me know, I could use some buddies.

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Tag: book

Shipwrecked

NanOMGWriMo

Ambition

Technical Support is Customer Service

Planning

Metamorphosis

Becoming a Well-Rounded Technician